Kotori
by Rei Tomiyama
Summary: Just a one-shot fiction about Kotori's death. Kamui's angst ahead.


Kotori: The Fallen Bird  
  
Shiro Kamui kneeled on Monou Kotori's gravestone, placing a bouquet of flowers on the small patch of ground that served as her eternal memorial.  
  
He let a small sigh escape his lips and then smiled, almost sadly. It was her fate, he reminded himself, as the Prophetess Hinoto had told him, or at least he tried to, but he couldn't shake off the feeling of helplessness.  
  
It had been barely a week after her death, but he had already given permission for her to be buried under the sacred tree. Somehow, though he knew Kotori was dead, he felt that she was happy to be buried underneath its roots.  
  
The entire situation made tears threaten to spill out, yet he held his determination to not shed a single drop, and he succeeded.  
  
To Kamui, it was only like yesterday that his mother had committed suicide by burning herself, and telling him to go to Tokyo. Then several 'Shiki' attacking him on the first day of school. Seeing Kotori again.  
  
Those moments with Kotori, he reflected silently, were the ones that he cherished the most. The first one was her running after him on the rooftop, and getting ticked off because of his coldness. Later on, a coincidential meeting in the library, where she dropped a book and he retrieved it for her. There had been a short conversation about her dream to become an instructor for indigo dyeing. Then catching her when she fainted, right after she had watched over her disabled father. Her pleas of him watching Fuma's basketball game. Talking in the night after the funeral of her father, even a question about his wishes for the future. Rescuing her from falling in the Angel Sakurazumori's illusion. And finally, an attempt to shake her into reality again after taking a glimpse of Magami Takiko's blood in the temple.  
  
It was where that nightmare had started. The temple. If only her father had given him the sword right away, then it wouldn't have been stolen. But he knew that would change nothing. When he chose between the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth, Fuma had killed his sister mercilessly, stabbing her with the shinken as he did so.  
  
Inevitable, Hinoto had informed him after. If he had chosen the Dragons of Earth, then he would have been the one to kill Kotori. Kamui just wanted Fuma and Kotori to find happiness in the world he would choose on whether to accept or change, yet it had become so complicated.  
  
He had wanted nothing to happen. He didn't believe in a destined course of anyone. He firmly thought that you were the one who made your own path, not have it prepared by the gods for you.  
  
All he had wished for was to see her again, after six years in Okinawa. No one would have been able to guess that, since for himself he had created an icy exterior, but ever since he had arrived in Okinawa, he longed for her because he was alienated in this new territory.  
  
It was all his fault. If only he had been stronger, then perhaps he would have regained consciousness before Fuma had tied her and taken her life. If only he had been more alert, then he would have dodged Fuma's blow. If only...  
  
So many regrets for something already done and past. But he knew he'd never be able to just embrace her death.  
  
For he had already begun to love her, when she left him heartbroken, catching her in the air as he yanked himself out of the tight cords binding him together.  
  
Cradling her in his arms, Kamui was silently whirled inside a stupor of unbelief. The glittering carmine eyes, the ever-present smile, the wavy auburn hair, dulled and lacking life. The most precious person in his life, lost like a bird fallen from its flight, tossed about, until it reached the ground, shattered and inanimate. Killed in front of his eyes, as if Kotori were a mere rag doll to be discarded once tired of.  
  
Kamui would never get over that. Though he strived to put the whole thing out of his mind, and concentrate on his hope to someday be answer the question left to him by her, which was 'What's your dream for the future?', dreams repeating the scene he detested most appeared to him, making him scrutinize every agonizing detail of her doomed fate.  
  
It had hurt. More deeply than any ordinary wound could. More piercing than any sharpened point would.  
  
She would never be able to hear him say it, but he did it anyway.  
  
"I... love... you..." He whispered softly. They stirred in the gentle breeze, and blew away, while his face began to assume a forlorn look, as it did when he used to speak to her.  
  
Then the bushes rustled and Sorata came out.  
  
"Can I pray for her too?" He asked in his Osaka accent. Kamui nodded almost imperceptibly.  
  
Then another voice uttered, "We'd like to pray for her too." Standing behind them were the rest of the Seven Seals, the Dragons of Heaven.  
  
He answered, "Kotori would be happy if you did."  
  
And they all began to pray for the girl whom the leader had cared for so strongly. They all understood that somehow she had been able to reach out to the true Kamui, and so had suffered the dire consequence of dying.  
  
Afterwards, they introduced themselves to each other.  
  
"I don't think we have introduced ourselves to each other yet. My name is Kasumi Karen."  
  
"Uh, I don't think all of you know me, I'm Sorata."  
  
"My name is Kishu Arashii."  
  
"My name's Nekoi Yuzuriha."  
  
"Aoki Seiichiro." Karen Kasumi let out a coy grin.  
  
"Weren't you the one who entered my work place as a customer?" Aoki colored a flustered crimson while Sorata's eyes widened.  
  
"Sumeragi Subaru."  
  
"And I am Shirou Kamui."  
  
Then Sorata lifted his hand to pat his shoulder, when he remembered that the last time he tried it Kamui had shoved it away. Kamui then grabbed his hand and placed it on his shoulder, and they both smiled.  
  
'I'll always remember a girl named Kotori who tried to fly as far as she could, even with the weight of her fate hanging on her.  
  
I promise, I'll make my own future, not allow fate to make it for me. And someday, I'll answer your inquiry about what I wanted to do for the future.  
  
Someday.'  
  
Terribly OOC. Can't help it, since it's my first attempt at an X fanfic, and a KamuixKotori one to boot.  
  
Anybody care to tell me Sorata's last name? 


End file.
